Rain-hit Rajaji to open on schedule
Pauri Garhwal, October 19
Despite the massive damage inflicted by rain and landslides on the world famous Rajaji National Park, park authorities are confident that the park will open according to schedule i.e. November 15.

A road damaged by a landslide at the Chilla range of the Rajaji National Park in Pauri Garhwal district. Repairs have to be completed before November 15. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Miss Uttarakhand-2010 slated for November25 girls selected for month-long grooming
Dehradun, October 19
To provide a platform to models of the state, city-based Sinmit Communications will be organising Miss Uttarakhand-2010, a state-level beauty contest in November this year. This was stated by Dalip Sindhi, Director, Sinmit Communications, here today.

Girls cheer their team at the Doon Girls Junior Basketball Tournament in Dehradun on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Dasehra over, but Ramlila season still at peak in Kumaon
Pitthoragarh, October 19
Though the Dasehra festivities are over in the region, Ram Lila season is still at its peak in Kumaon as after the conclusion of the mainstream Ramlila, organisers are busy conducting the Kumaoni language Ramlila in the Munsiyari region.

A scene of the Kumaoni Ramlila being enacted after Dasehra at Munsiyari in Pitthoragarh district.

Fear grips IMA as leopard prowls on campus
Dehradun, October 19
With winter setting in, yet another incident of leopard movement has been reported from the Indian Military Academy
(IMA) campus in Dehradun. The IMA has been in the thick of leopard movement in the past couple of years with the academy authorities repeatedly accusing the forest authorities of doing a little to curb the menace.
This time the leopard activity was observed by Gentleman Cadets (GCs) in the South Campus. For the past three days continuously, a leopard has been spotted at Sinhgarh Coy and the Bhagat Battalion area in South Campus of the
IMA. It is the same place where a leopard was seen in the beginning of the year.

Foresters rule out foul play in leopard’s death
Dehradun, October 19
After the death of a leopard on the Old Mussoorie Road on Sunday night, the Uttarakhand Forest authorities yesterday conducted a post-mortem examination of its body. The outcome of the report will be known in a few days.

Man on mission to harness latent talent of disabled
Dehradun, October 19
Hailing from a family of healers, who were physicians to Mysore rulers, Syed Sallauddin Pasha has used music and dance to harness the hidden potential of hearing impaired girls and physically challenged boys.

Durand Cup
Uttarakhand cops put up spirited fight, lose
Dehradun, October 19
Uttarakhand Police put up a spirited performance in their first Durand Cup outing in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Playing against a much-fancied Tata Football Academy (TFA), the cops lost 1-2 in an evenly contested match. Both teams were locked 1-1 at the end of the first half. TFA managed to pull the winner in the 75th minute.

Welham’s founder’s day celebrations end
Dehradun, October 19
The colourful festival at Welham Boys School concluded today with the play “Beauty is a Beast.” The junior wing of the school enacted the play here today. The fest was organised to commemorate the 74th School Founder Day.
Parents were invited to boost the excitement level among students.

Dev Lahiri, Principal, Welham Boys School, shows photographs clicked by students at the school in Dehradun on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph

BJP ropes in youth to widen voter base
Mussoorie, October 19
With the intent of widening the voter base in the 2010 Assembly elections, the BJP has roped in several youth in its organisational set-up. Kulanand Nautiyal, a resident of Mussoorie, has been nominated vice-president of Dehradun’s Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha here today.

RIMC shooting team second in IPSC meet
Dehradun, October 19
The IPSC shooting competition was held at Daly College, Indore, recently. Seven schools participated in this competition and a total of 19 cadets took part in various categories. The Rashtriya Indian Military College was adjudged the overall second while the host Daly College secured the first position.

New Gypsy Club enter semis
Dehradun, October 19
New Gypsy Club today became the third semifinalists of the DFA Challenger Cup being played here on the Pavilion Ground.

Satvik wins poster-making contest
Nainital, October 19
A poster-making
competition on “Environment Conservation” was organised by the Nainital branch of the Indian National Institute for Arts and Cultural
Heritage (INTACH) in which 30 boys and girls from various institutions participated.

Pauri Garhwal, October 19
Despite the massive damage inflicted by rain and landslides on the world famous Rajaji National Park, park authorities are confident that the park will open according to schedule i.e. November 15.

This monsoon, due to heavy rain, massive landslides, mudslides, caving in of roads, destruction to park property and wildlife was reported on a large scale. The park administration had made a detailed report of the damage.

The Forest Department has allocated Rs 1 crore to the Rajaji park administration as relief from the Central Government Disaster Fund while the other national park in the state - Jim Corbett National Park - has been granted Rs 1 crore from the central pool.

But as less than a month is left for the tourist season to begin, park officials are working round the clock to ensure that the inflow of tourists doesn’t get affected due to the bad condition of roads.

The repair as well as re-carpeting of roads is being done and the usual preparations carried out every year prior to the opening are being on a priority basis.

Speaking to The Tribune, Chilla ranger MS Negi said that the park administration was laying emphasis on making sure that all paths and inner routes in the park are made accessible to tourists.

The Rajaji National Park spans 820 sq km across three districts of the state - Pauri Garhwal, Haridwar and Dehradun - and was established in 1983.

Rajaji is an amalgamation of three sanctuaries situated in the Shivalik region - Rajaji, Motichur and Chilla.

The name Rajaji comes
from the famous freedom fighter and first Governor General of free India Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari.

Rajaji National Park Director SS Rasailly said that park authorities were constructing watch towers, improving roads, digging special water holes near roads and undertaking special cleaning of the park roads.

Asian elephants are a major attraction at the park, but very little movement of jumbos has been reported from the area adjacent to the park so far. Experts feel the movement of pachyderms might have been affected by the flood-like situation in the Ganga this monsoon. This might affect tourist inflow in the initial weeks of the tourist season.

Contestants for the Miss Uttarakhand strike a pose in Dehradun on Tuesday.
A Tribune photograph

Dehradun, October 19
To provide a platform to models of the state, city-based Sinmit Communications will be organising Miss Uttarakhand-2010, a state-level beauty contest in November this year. This was stated by Dalip Sindhi, Director, Sinmit Communications, here today.

Twenty girls who were selected from all over the district were also present on the occasion. They walked the ramp and gave their introduction to mediapersons.

“These girls will now be groomed for the final round for a month. Trainers from the city, along with the ones from Delhi, will train these models on various aspects,” Rajeev Mittal, co-director of the company, mentioned.

“The contestants will compete with each other for the Miss Uttarakhand 2010 title, along with first and second runner-up,” he affirmed.

Pitthoragarh, October 19
Though the Dasehra festivities are over in the region, Ram Lila season is still at its peak in Kumaon as after the conclusion of the mainstream Ramlila, organisers are busy conducting the Kumaoni language Ramlila in the Munsiyari region.

“Keeping the tradition of holding the Kumaoni language Ramlila in the Munsiyari region, which was started there in 1952, we have this year staged it in Pitthoragarh for two and half hours,” said Deepak Gupta, secretary of the Ramlila Committee, Pitthoragarh, adding that this year the Kumaoni language Ram Lila was mainly focused on the depiction of the court of King Janak and the dialogue between Lakshmana and Parshurama.

“In Almora, though the Ramlila is named as the Kumaoni Ramlila, the dialogue in it are mainly delivered in the Awadhi and Braz languages as written in the Ram Charit Manas written by Tulsi Das,” said Lalit Latwal.

In the Munsiyari region of Kumoan, at more than 12 places the Ramlila has been depicted in local languages for the past 60 years. “In that region the staging of Ramlila starts in the first week of November at Josha, Chauna, Bui, Pato, Tomik, and Ringu villages. After the villages have finished their routine agricultural work, they gather at these places to enjoy the Ramlila staged in local languages,” Durga Singh Dharmshktu, former Principal and organiser of the Kumaoni Ramlila in Pithoragarh, said.

Former MLA and Kumaoni folk singer Heera Singh Bora relates the tradition of the Kumaoni folk in epics with late BL Shah and Mohan Upreti, legendary folk artistes of Kumaon. “This tradition of using the Kumaon language in ballets was actually started by Shah in 1958,” said Bora. The Pitthoragarh Ramlila Committee has decided that from the next year, the Kumaoni language Ramlila will be an essential part of the staging of the epic story in the town.

Dehradun, October 19
With winter setting in, yet another incident of leopard movement has been reported from the Indian Military Academy (IMA) campus in Dehradun. The IMA has been in the thick of leopard movement in the past couple of years with the academy authorities repeatedly accusing the forest authorities of doing a little to curb the menace.

This time the leopard activity was observed by Gentleman Cadets (GCs) in the South Campus. For the past three days continuously, a leopard has been spotted at Sinhgarh Coy and the Bhagat Battalion area in South Campus of the IMA. It is the same place where a leopard was seen in the beginning of the year.

A spokesman for the IMA, Major Amit Dagar, said the IMA had communicated with the forest authorities about this recent incursion in writing.

Dehradun Divisional Forest Officer Meenakshi Joshi said the leopard movement was certainly quite frequent in the IMA and its vicinity. “The leopard movement is not a sudden in the academy and surrounding parts of Dehradun. We have put up two cages on the academy premises and also keep a continuous watch,” Joshi added. She admitted receiving a letter from the IMA today about the recent leopard activity.

Significantly, the IMA in July this year had appealed for relocation of leopards inside the IMA, describing them as threat to the safety of GCs and civilians residing on the campus. “The safety of GCs is of prime importance to this institution following which regular patrolling both day and night is being carried out as the animal has been spotted during broad day light also. This has caused considerable fear among civilians and children residing on the campus,” the IMA authorities had said.

Dehradun, October 19
After the death of a leopard on the Old Mussoorie Road on Sunday night, the Uttarakhand Forest authorities yesterday conducted a post-mortem examination of its body. The outcome of the report will be known in a few days.

According to Mussoorie Divisional Forest Officer Ram Gopal Verma, the feline was a male leopard of around two years of age. Verma, however, denied any foul play and said in all probability the leopard was hit by a speeding vehicle. “Prima facie the injury marks revealed

that the leopard was hit by a speeding vehicle. But, the exact reason of the death will only be known once the post-mortem report is received,” Verma added.

However, the forest authorities did not rule out taking action against the vehicle driver that had hit the leopard if they could zero in on the exact vehicle. They admitted that the vehicle too could have been damaged in a collision with the leopard.

It is noteworthy that there had been cases in the past of leopards venturing out
into the Old Mussoorie Road area. The area is also known for man-leopard conflicts as there have been instances in the past when leopards had been killed by villagers.

Dehradun, October 19
Hailing from a family of healers, who were physicians to Mysore rulers, Syed Sallauddin Pasha has used music and dance to harness the hidden potential of hearing impaired girls and physically challenged boys.

Come October 24, these talented youngsters will be presenting a show at St Joseph termed “celebrating abilities” in association with the Sahayak Social Welfare Society.

In Dehradun to finalise the programme yesterday, Pasha said despite the Indian Constitution guaranteeing equality for all, the disability Act was passed only in 1995 that promised equal opportunities for all. “But the implementation aspect is quite slow. Where is the enabling environment for the disabled? They still have to fight a lonely battle. None of our acclaimed dancers thought of harnessing the latent talent of the differently abled,” said Pasha, whose organisation Ability Unlimited has integrated elements of theatre, dance and physical exercise into a scintillating symphony.

While babysitting for small kids, which would prove tiresome at times, Pasha used music to quieten them. “It was a turning point when I realised that music could be used for healing purpose as well. I began experimenting with kathak, Bharatnatyam and yoga, and using a wheelchair I first mastered the moves and then moved on bringing the disabled,” he said.

In fact, while the famous Indian treaties on classical dance Natya Shastra spoke of disabled taking up dancing, Pasha created masterpieces with wheelchair-borne persons. “I see the wheelchair as Krishna’s chariot, and crutches as Shiva’s trident. These create perfect motion and our dancers have shown again and again that they are no less, figuring in the Limca Book of Records and popular talent shows on television,” added Pasha.

His dancers have won accolades abroad at various dance festivals and have come on their own. “It takes 10 to 15 years to prefect this art and once the dancer becomes accomplished, an independent career of a dancer and a choreographer can be pursued,” said Pasha.

Dehradun, October 19
Uttarakhand Police put up a spirited performance in their first Durand Cup outing in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Playing against a much-fancied Tata Football Academy (TFA), the cops lost 1-2 in an evenly contested match. Both teams were locked 1-1 at the end of the first half. TFA managed to pull the winner in the 75th minute.

Playing their first match in the 123rd edition of the Durand Cup, Uttarakhand Police put up an impressive performance at the Ambedkar Stadium.

Apart from the initial 10 minutes of the game, in which the young TFA side dominated proceedings, the cops gave a tough fight to their rivals.

The TFA side took the lead in the first minute of the game through Pankaj. Twenty-nine minutes later, experienced Bir Singh of Uttarakhand Police scored a brilliant goal to level the score 1-1.

In the second half, TFA players showed signs of fatigue, but a 75th minute goal by U Singh proved decisive. With this loss, the cops are out of the Durand Cup.

The police side played their first Durand Cup game and impressed all. This edition of the meet saw dismal performances by many established teams. The Indian Air Force hammered Ahbab 5-1, MEG thrashed INFC 6-1 and even Assam Rifles lost 0-1 to Army Green.

Compared to these teams, who play regularly in the tournament, the Uttarakhand Police put up a good show.

They lost to a professional side that consists of the best talent in the country, who after graduating from the academy play from top football clubs in India.

Their performance was praised by members of the Durand Society and this indicates that the Uttarakhand Police might be successful in obtaining entry next year too.

Dehradun, October 19
The colourful festival at Welham Boys School concluded today with the play “Beauty is a Beast.” The junior wing of the school enacted the play here today. The fest was organised to commemorate the 74th School Founder Day.

Parents were invited to boost the excitement level among students. Since the fest commenced on Monday, a mini fete was organised by the school here today.

Toral Sharan, Career Counsellor of the school, interacted with the parents in the morning. “This exercise is an important one for us, as it provides us with the opportunity to reflect and improve the subject choices of our students and their parents,” she stated.

A 10-minute documentary on the Uttarakhand Floods prepared by the students was also shown. The school this has dedicated this year’s founder’s day to the flood-victims and plan to denote all the funds to the effected.

Mussoorie, October 19
With the intent of widening the voter base in the 2010 Assembly elections, the BJP has roped in several youth in its organisational set-up. Kulanand Nautiyal, a resident of Mussoorie, has been nominated vice-president of Dehradun’s Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha here today.

BJP workers, in a meeting at the Mussoorie Press Club, congratulated Nautiyal on getting nominated.

President of Nagar Palika OP Uniyal presented a garland to Nautiyal. He said, “I am sure that Nautiyal will carry forward the good work of the party and the state government effectively. The BJP has supported it workers from the grassroots level and Nautiyal should also work towards Mission 2012 and rope in more youth in the party”.

Nautiyal thanked the party workers and said he would work for the interest of the party and the government. He also said the youth were dejected with the policies of the Congress-led government at the Centre and people had made up their minds to re-elect BJP-led government in 2012.

Shivani played a pivotal role in the win of Welham School scoring 12 points. Welham eves gave a sound thrashing to the host team in all four quarters. The four quarters result remained as 10-2, 22-4, 30-6, 40-9.

Earlier in the semifinal, Doon Girls’ School defeated The Aryan School 18-7. Akanksha with eight points was the main contributor in helping the host team secure the final berth. In another semifinal, Welham Girls’ School beat Jaswant Model School to enter the final.

Mussoorie, October 19
The two-day Garhwal Inter-university Table Tennis (TT) Tournament began under the aegis of MPG College, Mussoorie, today.

The chief guest on the occasion Principal of the college RS Shukla inaugurated the tournament by getting introduced to the players. There are more than 17 teams consisting of 10 groups in boys and seven in the girls section.

The tournament began with a team match between MPG College and Gopeshwar which was won by MPG College. A Rishikesh and Dehradun match was in progress till the filing of the report.

More than dozen colleges from various colleges of the state, namely Haridwar, Dehradun, Gopeshwar,Kotdwar etc are in the fray for the podium finish. Prof Lipika Kamboj, Ramesh Chamoli, Narendar Kumar, Bhupendar Upreti, college union president Sandeep Panwar, former college president Nitin Dut and others were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, October 19
The IPSC shooting competition was held at Daly College, Indore, recently. Seven schools participated in this competition and a total of 19 cadets took part in various categories. The Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) was adjudged the overall second while the host Daly College secured the first position. The cadets performed exceedingly well with a total tally of 11 medals, five individual and 6 team medals.

The cadets did exceptionally well and they all had a very good experience. All cadets gave out their best and are endeavouring to set greater levels and standards n this very challenging sport of skill, concentration and stamina, said Col Pankaj Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC, praising the cadets for their remarkable feat. The RIMC team was escorted by Khushi Ram and the shooting coach Hav Rana Pratap Singh.

Nainital, October 19
A poster-making
competition on “Environment Conservation” was organised by the Nainital branch of the Indian National Institute for Arts and Cultural
Heritage (INTACH) in which 30 boys and girls from various institutions participated.

The top three prizes were bagged by Satvik Pandey, Milan Sah and Fahad Rehman, respectively, while Prasun Joshi and Nitish Chauhan were given consolation prizes.

The judges for the event included environmentalist Dr Ranjit Bhargava, wildlife photographer AN Singh and photographer Anup Sah.

Dehradun, October 19
Under the aegis of the Arya Vidhya Sabha, New Delhi, DAV Public School celebrated the All-India Mahatma Hansraj Aryan Zonal Youth Festival 2010 here today. Mohan Lalji, Vice-Chairman of DAV Dehradun and Secretary DAVCMC, was the chief guest. The DAV schools from different regions of UP and Uttarakhand will be participating in the two-day fest.

Various competitions like quiz, debate, declamation, rangoli, spot painting and card making were organised today.

Students perform at the All-India Mahatma Hansraj Aryan Zonal Youth Festival in Dehradun on Tuesday.
A Tribune photograph